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Digital tools help to reduce plagiarism

South Africa’s higher educational institutions reduced unoriginal writing by 43,8% between 2010 and 2014.
This follows a move by 20 of the country’s 26 public universities to grade online with Turnitin. Electronic paper submissions increased by 3012% from almost 2 000 papers in 2003 to nearly 840 000 by 2014.
Carly Dove, marketing manager of Turnitin, says a 2014 study examined more than 14-million submissions across 15 countries to see how institutions use the software to reduce unoriginal writing and engage students in the writing process through the use of online feedback and grading tools.
Some findings from the study include:
* Higher education institutions in 12 of the 15 countries reduced unoriginal content by more than 30%.
* Majority of content matches from highly unoriginal submissions (greater than 50% unoriginal content) came from matches to other student papers rather than from websites, academic textbooks or journals.
* Use of Turnitin as a digital feedback tool showed growth in all 15 countries. The number of papers graded online in secondary and higher education institutions increased by 1 800% between 2005 and 2014.
“As education moves to greater use of technology, Turnitin is becoming a core component of the writing instruction process around the world,” says Jason Chu, education director at Turnitin.